


The Gifts of the Prophets

by tree_and_leaf



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Bajoran Religion, Ficlet, Gen, Religious Themes, religious angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-22
Updated: 2011-03-22
Packaged: 2017-10-17 05:15:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/173278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tree_and_leaf/pseuds/tree_and_leaf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Most of the time Winn loves being a vedek.  Occasionally she has her doubts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Gifts of the Prophets

**Author's Note:**

  * For [angevin2](https://archiveofourown.org/users/angevin2/gifts).



Most of the time, Winn Adami enjoyed being a vedek, despite the risks, despite the terrible responsibilities. She aided the people as best she could, and she knew she was a good administrator. More than that, she had a flair for people, for persuading them, for making them see things her way. It was a gift the Prophets had given her, and she intended to make good use of it. She’d always been clear-sighted, she’d devoted all her life to studying the teachings of the Prophets, and she knew she could help Bajor walk in their path, avoiding both the errors of the Resistance, who thought all power flowed from the point of a phaser, and the liberal theologians who were so busy making the faith more palatable to the people that they didn’t realize they were actually destroying their simple trust.

Yes, the Prophets had given her many gifts, and she would use them.

Most of the time she enjoyed her duty to counsel the lower clergy, the ranjens and the prylars. Her doctrine was impeccably sound and well-reasoned, and she had more practical good sense than most theologians.

There were times, though, when it made her positively uncomfortable. It was, she told herself, the ridiculous jargon the younger generation used. Their "personal relationships with the Prophets"… they were so sentimental, and so presumptuous, and usually so sloppy in their thinking. Theological education wasn’t what it was. Mostly she put it down to the pressures of the Occupation promoting an emotion-laden pietism over sound scholarship. She did her best to remember that, after all, many of them were simply parroting the vocabulary they’d learned because no-one had ever taught them better. She did her best, and perhaps one day she would be in a position to do something about the formation of the clergy.

She never admitted that there were moments when she wondered why everyone except her seemed to have been touched by the Prophets. When she wondered if, after all, they did have – in the nauseating phrase – a "personal relationship" with them. And why she didn’t.

But after all, that was a lack of faith. She didn’t need such emotional excitement to lead her in the path of the Prophets.

The Prophets had given her many gifts, and she intended to use them for Bajor.


End file.
